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Monday, August 8, 2011

Do These Stripes Make My Nails Look Fat?

Another busy week with no time for a polish change meant another opportunity for me to use the Sally Hansen Salon Effects strips. This time, I chose one of the limited edition designs they released earlier this year, a navy and white horizontal stripe called Ay, Ay, Captain!

Since I've had good experiences with the allover designs I've tried before, I was unprepared for how much I struggled with these stripes. I thought about not even posting these today because I didn't want to share two not-so-great manis in a row, but the not-so-greatness happened whether I share it or not so I might as well get it out there so I can move on to more successful things starting tomorrow.

I had a couple problems with these strips. First, because the design is linear and high-contrast, it was more important than with other designs to get them on straight with no wrinkles. That's not impossible to do, but it does require extra time and care. With the less finicky designs, I've usually removed both the backing and clear cover from the strips before putting them on my nails, which makes them easier to mold to the curve of my nail. With these, I tried that approach on one nail and realized it wasn't going to work; without the clear cover, the strips were too floppy to place precisely. So for the rest, I kept the cover on while placing the strips, which helped me get them on straight but required me to be very careful not to mess up my hard work when peeling the cover off the strips—it was very easy to pull the strip off my nails at the corners of my tips when pulling off the cover. Second, the navy stripes were noticeably thick on top of the white. That thickness meant that vertical lines formed in them as they had to bend around the curve of my nail. It was not a good look. Also, I had a couple strips rip off right along the navy stripe at the tip of my nail as I was filing off the excess strip material, probably because the white part was so much weaker than the navy.

Based on the photo of my thumb above, perhaps you are thinking I am exaggerating the not-so-greatness. Sure, there's a bigger-than-ideal gap at the base of my nail, but other than that, it looks okay. I agree, it does look okay. That's because I carefully selected that photo of the nail which looked the best; the lighting and angle at which I'm holding my hand in that photo also help minimize the appearance of the flaws.

But now get a good look at these shots:

See those wrinkles in the navy stripes? At first I thought I was really messing up with my application, but then I noticed how the wrinkles didn't continue into the white stripes. No way I could manage to do that; I'm not that talented. It was very disappointing to realize that no matter how careful I was, I couldn't make the navy stripes lay completely flat. I was tempted to take them off and do a conventional manicure with liquid polish, but after taking my hand out of the lightbox I realized the wrinkles weren't that noticeable in normal room light at non-macro lens distances so kept the strips on. I wore them all week, touching up tipwear with a navy Wet 'n' Wild from my stash, and got several compliments on them.

One thing I wish I'd thought to try was using a topcoat; perhaps that would have smoothed out the wrinkles and minimized the tipwear. Maybe next time. I wrapped up the leftovers tightly to keep air away and prevent them from drying out, so perhaps you'll see some striped accent nails from me at some point. I won't stop using these strips; it's just a learning process about which ones work better for me.

Wow-the macro view really does show the wrinkles in the navy-weird that it's not in the white. Doesn't look too bad in the regular shot, I'm surprised you lasted a week without changing your polish! That's unheard of these days! Have to say, the stripes aren't for me-but to each his own!

I like this design. I have still not tried these yet but I am pretty sure I will when the Halloween ones come out. I don't know if I can handle keeping them on for long enough to justify the price. I am used to daily np changes lol.

You are too funny! Too bad about the wrinkling but not visible from a distance so the only person who probably seen the wrinkles was you. Too bad though as the mani your posted before using them looked great and they seem like the ideal thing to use when no times to do you nails!

I've had this same set on since Thursday night and I have the wrinkling too - although mine isn't as pronounced as yours. I thought they ended up looking almost like denim. What bugged me was that I ended up with navy at the tips because of the length of my nails in comparison to the strips, and tipwear became really obvious because of the contrast between my white nail tip and the navy strip. I'm taking them off tonight even though they're still mostly intact because I have no tolerance for tipwear.

I thought that same thing (does this make my nails look fat?!) the other week when I had horizontal strips on my nails. LOL Too bad those wrinkled so bad because the stripes are cute. A week without changing polish? I think I would go insane. INSANE, I tell ya!

Oh no! It's the exact opposite of Ay, Ay Captain for me on this one. I know what you mean by the direction of the stripes. For my own pesonal preference, I will avoid this one and get other designs instead.